NewsWrap
for the week ending August 9th, 1997
(As broadcast on THIS WAY OUT Program #489,
distributed 08-11-97)
[Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Brian Nunes, Susan
Gage, Graham Underhill, Rex Wockner, Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and
anchored by Cindy Friedman and Brian Nunes]
Openly gay U.S. writer and artist William S. Burroughs died suddenly of a
heart attack this week at the age of 83. A seminal figure in the Bohemian
"Beat" movement, he was widely recognized as the model for the hippies of the
1960's. His influence extended beyond "Beat" founders Jack Kerouac and the
late openly gay poet Allen Ginsberg, to more contemporary artists such as
David Bowie, Blondie's Deobrah Harry, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and REM's
Michael Stipe, and he was much admired by Norman Mailer. His most famous
work was one of his earliest, "Naked Lunch", a fantasia on his 15 years of
heroin addiction. "Naked Lunch" became notorious in a series of obscenity
trials but also broke new literary ground with its jump-cut,
stream-of-consciousness style. While a dozen other Burroughs works of both
fiction and non-fiction were published, in his later years Burroughs turned
more to photography and painting, with some success. Burroughs made
headlines in 1951 when his drunken, drugged attempt to recreate the William
Tell legend by shooting a glass off Joan Vollmer's head made him the killer
of the only woman he ever loved. Burroughs attributed all his subsequent
work to dealing with his feelings about that tragedy.
In the headlines, "Ward vs. Ward" became the custody case that pitted a
lesbian mother against a murderer father. Mary Ward was only seeking an
increase in child support payments when she went to court in 1995, but
Pensacola, Florida CircuitCourt Judge JosephTarbuck instead gave custody of
then 11 year old Cassey Ward to her father John. The judge said Cassey
should have the chance to grow up in "a non-lesbian world". A year ago,
Florida's First District Court of Appeals upheld Tarbuck's decision, even
though John Ward had confessed to killing his first wife and served 8 years
in prison for it before he wedded Mary. The appeals court found that Tarbuck
had ruled "in the best interests of the child", rather than based on Mary
Ward's lesbian orientation. Mary Ward immediately filed for the appeals
court to reconsider its decision. This week, the appeals court took the
unusual step of withdrawing its earlier ruling. This Way Out's Susan Gage
has more on the story:
[tape:]
Susan Gage: This latest twist in the case comes nearly eight months after
Mary Ward died of a heart attack. Nonetheless, Mary Ward's attorney Charlene
Carress says the appellate court's decision to withdraw its opinion is a
victory:
Charlene Carress: The decision that was on the books, although it claimed
not to have upheld the trial judge's decision on the basis of Mary Ward's
lesbianism, in fact didn't give explanations that matched the prior cases to
explain why it wasn't taking her relationship with Marjorie Wright into
account.
Susan Gage: Edward Fleming, the attorney for John Ward, says he's
disappointed with the court's decision not to publish the Ward opinion
because it means trial judges won't have this case available to guide them in
making similar decisions. As for the Ward's daughter, the First DCA's
decision has no impact on her custody. For This Way Out, this is Susan Gage
in Tallahassee.
In Ecuador, a notorious bar raid has sparked a new level of gay and lesbian
activism and public support for the repeal of the nation's sodomy law. The
story began in May in the town of Cuenca, where a Catholic group joined
neighbors of the gay and transgender bar Los Albanicos in complaining to
police of what they called "immoral conduct and weekend scandals". Azuay
state police chief Diego Crespi responded in mid-June by raiding the bar and
arresting as many as 14 men who could not show identification. Those men
were charged with intent to commit a crime against morality and released two
days later -- but not before one was raped by a jail guard, another was raped
by an inmate as guards looked on and laughed, and a third was denied any
medical attention after suffering a seizure. The result was what's believed
to be Ecuador's first formal complaint of police abuse against sexual
minorities. Only ten days after the raid, a group of 90 gays and lesbians
had organized to seek reform of the national sodomy statute, which punishes
private homosexual acts between consenting adults with 4-to-8 years'
imprisonment. A groundswell of favorable public opinion included a call for
repeal by Azuay governor Felipe Vega de la Cuadra. Both the International
Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the International Lesbian and Gay
Association are supporting Ecuadoran activists in their campaign for sodomy
law reform.
In Vancouver last week, Bruce Chambers stole the spotlight at the Gay Pride
parade, when he became the first police chief in Canada to join a pride
march. He marched at the head of a contingent of openly gay police officers
to demonstrate his commitment to fair treatment of both police personnel and
the general public. British Columbia's health minister and attorney general,
and Vancouver's mayor and four city councilmembers also turned out for the
city's 10th pride event, along with thousands of gay and lesbian activists
and spectators. Religious conservatives in the Vancouver area have recently
been actively working to stop discussion of homosexuality in area schools and
to block the progress of domestic partnership legislation in British
Columbia.
In other Canada pride news, hearings began this week on charges by the
group Homophile Association of London Ontario, or HALO, that London Mayor
Dianne Haskett illegally discriminated against them by refusing them a
proclamation of Gay Pride Weekend in 1995. A previous similar case against
Hamilton Mayor Bob Morrow ended with his being personally fined $5,000 when a
tribunal judged proclamations to be a service covered by Ontario's human
rights law. Haskett says her case is different because she had established
personal guidelines for rejecting five kinds of proclamations before
receiving HALO's request, one of her categories being sexuality, whether
homosexual, heterosexual or celibate. HALO's counsel has suggested that she
actually set up the guidelines in order to be able to avoid issuing the pride
proclamation, and has made deletion of her sexuality category a goal of their
complaint.
The Canadian Hockey League, which includes three major-junior hockey
leagues for players aged 16 to 20, this week released a report they'd
commissioned as to how to protect players from sexual exploitation. The
recommendations included anti-homophobia training for everyone involved with
the League, including players' parents and the venues used by the teams. The
report was developed in response to National Hockey League Boston Bruins
player Sheldon Kennedy's revelation in January of years of sexual abuse at
the hands of his junior hockey coach. Kennedy said at the time that the
homophobia of his peers was a significant factor in his keeping silent about
the abuse. While the Canadian Hockey League has yet to decide which of the
recommendations to accept and how to implement them, the minor hockey group
Canadian Hockey Association worked out its plan in March and began its
implementation in May -- but then, there's a lot less money involved for the
minor clubs than for the junior hockey club owners of the Canadian Hockey
League.
Money's also the name of the game in cities' bidding for the quadrennial
Gay Games. Just how much money was the subject of a report released this
week projecting the economic impact should Sydney succeed in bringing the
games of 2002 to Australia. It was only the nation's second formal economic
impact assessment of a gay and lesbian event, the first having been the
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. For the three weeks of the Games, Doctor
Gary Cox of the University of Sydney estimated as much as
$140-million-Australian-dollars in increased economic activity within the
state of New South Wales, and up to $50-million more for the rest of the
country. The report appears to amply justify Sydney's grant of $75,000 to
develop a bid for the 6th quadrennial Gay Games, despite vocal opposition
from 8 Australian Labor Party members of the state Parliament and from a
national leader of the right-wing National Party.
Also in Australia, there are some preliminary reports from the first
national census to count same-gender domestic partnerships. The Australian
Bureau of Statistics found almost 1,400 couples in the state of Western
Australia, split almost evenly between gay male and lesbian pairs. About
2,500 gay and lesbian couples were reported in the state of Queensland. A
total of some 6,000 same-gender couples identified themselves in all the
states except New South Wales and Victoria, whose larger populations will
delay their tallies by a few months. Many believe these figures to be only
the tip of the iceberg -- the Western Australia couples reported are only
about one-tenth of one percent of the state's population -- but they can
still begin to have some effect on public policy.
And finally ... condom manufacturer Durex had product news this week.
First, their research has found a new polyurethane condom to be no more
likely to brak than the traditional latex kind, and that's important for
people who are allergic to latex. But, as their spokesperson said, to add "a
little more fun", they also unleased flavored condoms on Australia for the
first time. The new range of flavors includes strawberry, tangerine, and
banana ... and Durex spokesperson Tracy Meade assured the media that, "ours
taste like genuine fruits!"
-----------*------------
Sources for this week's report included: Associated Press, Boston Globe,
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Globe & Mail (Toronto), Herald Sun
(Melbourne, Australia), London (Ontario, Canada) Free Press, London (England)
Times, New York Times, Reuters News Service, San Francisco Chronicle,
Vancouver Sun, Washington Post, CapitalQ (Sydney), Lesbian/Gay Law Notes
(Lesbian & Gay Law Association of Greater New York), Sydney Star Observer,
Washington (DC) Blade, Westside Observer (Perth, Australia); and cyberpress
releases from the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the
International Lesbian & Gay Association.